Critical Review by John Skow

SOURCE: “Hearts of Darkness,” in Time, November 9, 1998, p. 113.

In the following review, Skow offers positive assessment of The Poisonwood Bible.

A forest: monkeys, army ants, poisonous frogs. Below, on a path, a woman and four girls, all in shirtwaist dresses. “Seen from above this way,” writes novelist Barbara Kingsolver at the outset of The Poisonwood Bible, “they are pale, doomed blossoms, bound to appeal to your sympathies. Be careful. Later on you'll have to decide what sympathy they deserve.” Fair warning, though what the reader must decide before finishing this turbulent, argumentative narrative goes beyond judging four white American daughters and their mother, set down deep in the Congo in the precarious year 1959.

What follows would shame the gods, if any were paying attention. Here's the mother, back...